Standardization of State Exams or Competition in the Federal System?

Abstract | German legal education is in part determined by federal law and in part by the local law of the German states. In order to ensure the compatibility of the examinations the Conference of the Ministers of Justice has discussed a variety of measures. Unfortunately, this discussion was not accompanied by empirical research on the existence and impact of such differences. However, a statistical study about students moving from one state to the other gives, at least, hints about this question. Together with other available data on the university part of the State Examination the study provides arguments why the current differences between the legal education statutes of the German states are less important than differences in the...